Semi-smart technology has it’s place

Musing #3

While discussing my mother's business with her, I came up with a semi-smart technology idea for tracking her income. For a variety of reasons, they don’t have a cash register or other booking software, but they keep track of things the old-fashioned way- writing down every transaction.

However, there are ways that keep it from being as accurate as it could be, which leads to trying to find the error in the accounting of the income every week. Things that get in the way include the other tasks they have to do at the front desk when engaging with customers, the blend of cash and online payments, etc. I was trying to figure out a way to make it a bit easier.

What I came up with was a smart keyboard connected to an Excel spreadsheet or something similar. They have a set of fixed-cost services, and the online payment system charges a fee for every transaction. But if the smart keyboard (Bluetooth connected, probably) was able to be set up with those values in the keys (programmable keys), they could press those keys as they go about their business, and at the end of the day, have a digital record of it to check against the actual money in the cashbox.

There would probably be more that needs to be taken into account here, but it could be a way to help.